This disclosure relates generally to equipment for spraying materials, such as paint, and, more particularly, to booths for spraying such materials.
Many manufacturing processes involve the application of one or more materials, such as paint, to the parts being manufactured. In large-scale industrial settings, the application of such materials is often carried out at dedicated facilities with specialized equipment for handling volatile materials. This equipment frequently includes specialized systems, such as, for example, advanced ventilation systems with ducting to the exterior of the production facility for venting volatile organic compounds, and fire suppression systems, which may not be required by other steps of the manufacturing process. In addition, dedicated painting facilities are often operated by personnel with specialized skills, which adds to the cost of production.
In certain manufacturing applications, it is desirable to collect in a single location all the equipment necessary to complete the manufacture of a given part. One example of such an application is a “Chaku-Chaku” production line. Chaku-Chaku is a Japanese term meaning “load-load”; it is a method of conducting single-piece production flow in which an operator proceeds from machine to machine, taking a part from one machine and loading it in the next, then taking the part just removed from that machine and loading it in the following machine, and so on. Chaku-Chaku production lines allow different steps of a manufacturing process to be completed by a single operator, thereby eliminating the need to move around large batches of work-in-progress inventory.
In some cases, parts being manufactured in a Chaku-Chaku production line or in similar settings require the application of one or more materials, such as paint. In such cases, it is often necessary to interrupt the process flow and transport batches of unfinished parts to a dedicated facility for application of the appropriate material and then wait for the parts to be returned, which can take 24 hours or longer in some cases. Typically, this procedure is inconvenient and disruptive to the overall flow of the manufacturing process, and it can add significant inefficiencies to the process.